Reed-Solomon decoders typically use a Berlekamp-Massey process to determine an error locator polynomial for a given codeword and a Chien search to find the roots of the error-locator polynomial (i.e., symbol error locations). The Berlekamp-Massey process/Chien search technique may be inefficient. For example, during the Berlekamp-Massey process phase, such techniques may perform extraneous calculations or may perform calculations in another suboptimal manner. For example, such techniques may continue to perform Berlekamp-Massey or Chien search iterations after a point at which prior calculations establish that full and proper decoding of the codeword is not possible.